


Signal

by spiritualmachines



Category: Hanson (Band)
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Claustrophobia, Kissing, M/M, POV Third Person, Sibling Love, Snow, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 09:19:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17200823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiritualmachines/pseuds/spiritualmachines
Summary: Excerpt:“I can’t die in this car, Taylor. We have to find a way out and soon.”





	Signal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [malfunkshon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malfunkshon/gifts).



Isaac was terrified of small spaces. 

Crawl spaces, elevators, closets, and even bus bunks gave him the worst anxiety. Until today, though, vehicles hadn’t been an issue. However, as the snow began to fall harder and the wheels spun fruitlessly, only serving to dig them deeper into the hole they had created, he mentally added cars to the list of claustrophobic, panic-inducing items. Especially cars buried in snow in the middle of nowhere. 

“There’s gotta be a way to get this thing moving. We can’t get stuck here. We just can’t,” he said, his knuckles white as he clutched the door handle, turning to look toward his brother and doing little to hide the fear behind his eyes. 

“We won’t get stuck, Ike,” Taylor replied matter-of-factly, sounding much too calm given the nasty weather swirling all around them. “Ruby has never let me down before, and she’s not about to start failing me now.” 

"Your car might have some deep-seated hatred toward me, you know. Haven't you ever seen _Christine_? That car only loved her man—yours truly. Ruby may only love you, and this is her way of offing me!"

Taylor rolled his eyes, keeping his gaze fixed on the road ahead. But Isaac couldn’t help but wonder how he was even able to see anything. The snow was now descending onto the windshield in thick, unforgiving sheets, painting everything around them an unappealing shade of gray. 

To stop himself from hyperventilating and spiraling past the point of no return, Isaac began to count between each breath in an attempt to keep his wits about him. 

"One two three four, one two three four, one two three four," he murmured rhythmically.

When the car began to skid, all hopes of concentrating escaped him and he gripped Taylor's thigh tightly, his fingernails threatening to tear right through the denim.

“I’ve got it all under control,” Taylor maintained in a level tone. 

But his actions told a different story as he steered his precious Ruby off of the road and into a ditch. 

Under better circumstances, he may have had the snark and audacity to point out that Taylor very clearly did _not_ have things under control, but the panic attack creeping in at the edges had turned his brain to mush and his tongue to lead. 

"Fuck," Taylor muttered, putting the car in reverse in a futile attempt to escape. 

It was no use, of course. Despite Taylor’s efforts (complete with curses, grunts and groans), poor Ruby was dragged even further into the shallow ravine by Mother Nature’s ruthless hands. As Isaac had unfortunately predicted, they were stuck—and with the snowstorm continuing to rage on in all its ice-cold fury, there was no telling when they would be able to get _un_ stuck. It was a paralyzing thought. 

"I am going to see if I can dig us out," Taylor declared, pulling his beanie down over his ears. 

All Isaac could do was nod robotically, hoping that at the very least, the car had enough gas to keep the engine running and prevent them from freezing. 

"Come on," Taylor mumbled.

Swearing again, he threw his weight against the door to try to open it, only to be met with resistance from the heavy snow. After trying a variety of unique methods to exit the vehicle (including twisting his tall body into positions that Isaac would’ve found hilarious had he not been so fucking scared), and probably earning quite a few nasty bangs and bruises along the way, Taylor finally admitted defeat, slumping down into the seat with a weary sigh. Meanwhile, Isaac remained as stiff as a statue in the passenger seat. If not for the wild, erratic rhythm of his pulse pounding at his temples, reminding him that he was still alive, he might have believed that he’d stopped breathing altogether. 

“Does your phone have signal?”

Taylor’s voice barely registered as Isaac stared blankly ahead, watching the snow gather on the pristine red hood of the car, sticking and whiting it out nearly immediately. Even if he had wanted to look at his phone, he was unable to do anything but watch the vibrant color disappear before his very eyes.

“Ike, dude! Eyes on me for a sec, okay?” Taylor requested, snapping his fingers impatiently in a bid for his attention.

Somehow he managed to tear his gaze away from the windshield, but his mind was so hazy that he promptly forgot what Taylor had asked him. Anxiety tended to have that effect on him, making him even more scatterbrained and loopy than usual.

Heaving a loud, exasperated sigh, Taylor held his phone up and motioned for him to follow suit.

“No signal,” Isaac replied weakly as he stared down at the screen of his iPhone, feeling himself deflate as the last shred of hope fled his body.

“There should be some blankets in the trunk. I’m gonna try to grab them just in case we need them. Zac is expecting us any minute now, so when we don’t show he’ll come looking,” Taylor said, once again folding his tall frame into an utterly absurd position as he wedged himself between the seats. 

“You put way too much faith in that little asshole,” Isaac muttered, thinking that there was a better chance of a fairy godmother appearing out of thin air to save them than there was of Zac coming to their rescue. He flinched then, as Taylor kicked him in the shoulder. “Jesus, Tay, couldn’t you have taken your boots off before going back there?”

“I don’t see you doing a damn thing to help, so you might wanna watch your mouth,” Taylor shot back, his voice muffled as he dug through the trunk.

Turning to the side, Isaac watched as Taylor somehow managed to fit nearly all the way into the very _non_ -Taylor-sized space in the back, when a light bulb suddenly flicked on in his head. 

“Hey, does your car have one of those latches in the trunk that will open it from the inside in case you get stuck in there?” he asked, practically scrambling over Taylor out of sheer desperation to get the hell out of there. 

As he straddled Taylor, securing an arm around his brother’s waist to make sure they both didn’t wind up on the floor, he hoped to God he was onto something actually resembling a solution. If not, then he was royally fucked. His claustrophobia was about to reach an all-time high. 

“I don’t know,” Taylor grumbled, clearly not understanding what Isaac was getting at.

“Let me take a look. Maybe we can climb out through the back,” Isaac spoke in a rush, gripping Taylor’s body tightly as another wave of crippling fear crashed over him. “I can’t die in this car, Taylor. We have to find a way out and soon.”

Isaac honestly wasn’t sure how on earth he was going to fit through the narrow space leading into the trunk, but he was willing to give it all he had in order to breathe fresh air again, even if it was in the midst of a raging winter storm. 

So after counting to four once more under his breath, he clenched his eyes shut and went for it.

If the car had triggered his claustrophobia, shoving his body into the dark trunk was even worse. The cold winter air was seeping through the cracks, chilling his bones from the outside as the anxiety seized him from within. 

“We can’t die in here,” he mumbled to himself as incentive to keep moving, feeling around the lid of the trunk for a lever. 

Taylor, bless his heart, was pushing him through to the best of his ability, and as he felt his ass squeeze through the tight space, aided by his brother smashing it down as much as possible, his hand closed around the emergency lever. 

Crying out, he yanked on the piece of plastic as hard as he could and the sound of the trunk clicking open was the sweetest thing he’d heard in recent memory.

He sank to the snow-covered ground gratefully, not even caring that he’d left his scarf, hat and gloves in the car. He was so happy to be out of the vehicle’s cramped confines, he would have kissed Ruby on the lips if the little red car had a mouth. 

Moments after the absurd thought had occurred to him, he felt a pair of decidedly firm, slightly chapped lips press against his. He didn’t need to open his eyes to know that they didn’t belong to the car at all, but rather her owner.

“I would never let you die in a car like that,” Taylor murmured into the kiss, causing a tingling warmth to spread from Isaac’s mouth all the way down to his toes.

As quickly as Taylor had appeared, he was gone. He was a man on a mission as he tugged his phone out of his pocket, his boots crunching through the snow as he strode away from Isaac and toward the road.

After blinking several times in succession, Isaac felt himself relax completely into the snowbank. Whereas minutes ago, he’d been on the verge of losing himself in his fear, all of his worries melted away just like that, replaced with the thrill of the forbidden kiss he had just shared with Taylor. And in that moment, under the steel wool sky, with frigid air surrounding him and the lingering feeling of Taylor’s mouth on his own like fire licking at frostbitten skin, Isaac realized that he would have been okay with dying.

“Ike! We’re back in business! I found signal!” Taylor’s giddy exclamations drifted into his ears, snapping him back to reality.

“That’s awesome,” he answered with a dazed smile, running his finger along his bottom lip as he wondered if it had all been a dream.

If so, he wasn’t quite ready to wake up.


End file.
